Some years ago, Bibi Netanyahu was chatting with the noted criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz in Israel. He took him aside and asked, in a whisper, “So, did O.J. do it?”

Dershowitz, now retired from Harvard Law School, had joined O.J. Simpson’s defense team after Simpson’s wife was murdered and O.J. was charged with her death.

The lawyer thought about Bibi’s question, then responded, also in a whisper, “Tell me. Does Israel have nuclear weapons?”

Although he’s been friendly with both men, Dershowitz — who calls himself a Zionist — is foursquare behind Netanyahu in his feud with President Barack Obama.

In a recent telephone interview with this newspaper, Dershowitz explained why he sides with Netanyahu — and answered such questions as “Why do lawyers have such a bad a reputation?” And “Would he have defended so evil a man as the Nazi physician Josef Mengele? … Or the convicted Soviet spies, the Rosenbergs?”

One thing that violinist Joshua Bell is not is: pretentious. Although he’s one of the most honored violinists in the world, he doesn’t put on airs.

He admits liking jazz, mentioning that he has performed with such artists as Winton Marsalis and Sting. His hobby: watching football on television. He also enjoys Broadway shows, and recently saw “Phantom of the Opera” — “I had a ball” — although his all-time Broadway favorite is “West Side Story.” And he admits that he’s hurt by negative criticism.

Mr. Bell will be performing at Bergen PAC in Englewood at 8 p.m. on March 27, in a program that includes Beethoven, Brahms, Bartok, and Grieg. (Reserve tickets at (201) 227-2030 or www.bergenpac.org.)

Mr. Bell will use his famous Gibson-Huberman violin, made in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari, which he bought for just under $4 million in 2001. (It’s worth about $15 million today.) Bronislaw Huberman was a famous violinist who rescued some 1,000 people from Nazi Germany in the 1930s by having them play in the all-Jewish Palestine Symphony in Israel, now called the Israel Philharmonic.